Tag: Hawaii

Right up front, I have to say that the title is the most annoying thing about this book. Did anyone ever use “rad” as an adjective unironically? That said, “radical” is not an unfair term to apply to many of the women whose short biographies are written in this volume. There are forty stories set around 30 “countries”, starting with Enheduanna of Mesopotamia, the first named author that we have records of, and wrapping around the globe to Emma Goldman, born in Russia, anarchist and advocate for worker’s rights.

This is a sequel to Rad American Women A-Z by the same creators; the greater scope allows them to have more variety. There are scientists, athletes and entertainers, politicians and even a princess! The book is written for middle-grade girls, but some of the subject matter may be difficult for more sensitive readers. (A couple of these biographies moved me to tears.) Many of the women covered I had heard of before, but a few were new to me.

The papercut illustrations by Miriam Klein Stahl give the book a distinctive, rough-hewn look; it also ties the appearance of the volume together better than a mix of photographs and paintings might have, as there are both historical and contemporary women covered.

This book also wears its politics on its sleeve, obvious in the selection of women to write about. Politically conservative parents might find it uncomfortable that Kasha Jacqueline Nagabasera (fights for gay rights in Uganda) and Buffy Sainte-Marie (anti-war activist) get full entries while such right-wing icons as Margaret Thatcher and Mother Teresa don’t even make the 250 honorable mentions in the back. The poem about “the stateless”, refugees, exiles and others torn from their homelands includes the line “No human being is illegal.”

As is common in collections of short biographies, only the highlights of any given woman’s life are included, and edited according to the author’s intent. Many of these women were controversial during their lifetimes, and some of them are still controversial now. A reader who takes a particular interest in one of the subjects would be well advised to seek out more complete biographies. I’ve previously reviewed biographies of King Hatshepsut http://www.skjam.com/2016/01/20/book-review-the-woman-who-would-be-king-hatshepsuts-rise-to-power-in-ancient-egypt/ and Queen Lili’uokalani http://www.skjam.com/2014/02/21/book-review-lost-kingdom-hawaiis-last-queen-the-sugar-kings-and-americas-first-imperial-adventure/ , for example.

I expect that this book will end up in a lot of elementary school libraries. I’d also recommend this volume to parents of middle-grade kids (yes, boys too, to go with their many books about famous men) with the caveat (or bonus!) that you might want to sit down with them to discuss some of the topics that will come up.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books for the purpose of writing this review. No other compensation was offered or requested.

It is 1938, the tail end of the Great Depression, and San Francisco is trying to shake off its blues with a World’s Fair on Treasure Island. They’re going to need a lot of employees for that, and the prospect of a job draws Grace Lee all the way from Ohio. She’s from a small town where her parents were the only other people of Chinese ancestry; all these other people who look kind of like her is a bit of a shock.

It turns out that the World’s Fair can’t use a Chinese dancer, but there’s a nightclub called the Forbidden City that’s hiring, and they only want Chinese. On her way there, Grace gets some help from Helen Fong, a young woman from a traditionalist family, and when they arrive, they meet Ruby Tom, a vivacious woman who’s changed her name because Japanese-Americans have an even tougher time getting good jobs than Chinese-Americans.

The three women try out together, and although only two are chosen at that time, they form a life-long bond. However, each of them has secrets in their past, and those combine with their ambitions to turn them against each other as well. World War Two in particular raises the stakes, and their careers and friendship may never recover.

This book is loosely based on real life Asian-American entertainers of the mid-20th Century, and there’s an interview with some of those real people at the end of the paperback edition I read.

Grace makes a good viewpoint character for the first part of the novel; her parents were very insistent on her being “American” so she’s a complete newcomer to Chinese-American culture and the full array of prejudice faced by Asian-Americans outside of her small town. The reader learns along with her. Helen and Ruby also have sections from their viewpoints, but at first are concealing details from the reader as well as their friends–we don’t learn some important information about Helen until nearly the end of the book.

Some of the behavior of the protagonists is pretty shabby, and a couple of the betrayals go well beyond what would break most friendships permanently. Some readers may find it impossible to believe that the characters even speak to each other after what happens.

All three protagonists also have romantic difficulties. Mistakes are made, and attitudes change over the years. One of the characters winds up in a relationship that’s considerably less than ideal from just about every angle.

As you might have guessed, period racism and sexism play a considerable part in the story, as well as period homophobia. Grace’s backstory involves domestic abuse. There’s some use of period slurs, lampshaded towards the end by a modern-day (1980s) college student asking pointed questions about the attitudes of the past.

I’d recommend this book to people curious about the “chop suey circuit” that Asian-American performers were shunted into during the Twentieth Century–the “Random House Reader’s Circle” edition is designed for use by book clubs.

This is a collection of short biographical sketches of women who made advancements in various scientific fields. According to the introduction, it was inspired when the New York Times ran an obituary of Yvonne Brill that listed her home cooking as her most important accomplishment, followed by being a wife and mother. And only then mentioning that she was an award-winning rocket scientist that made it possible for satellites to adjust their orbits.

And it is true that scientists who happen to be women have often been downplayed or outright ignored in books on the history of science. So in the interest of making these scientists more widely known and giving role models to women and girls interested in the sciences, Ms. Swaby picked fifty-two stories to tell. One of her criteria was that they had to be dead, so their entire body of work could be assessed; she points out that this made her list less ethnically diverse as women of color and those outside the Europe/America culture area have been even more hampered in pursuing science careers, though strides have been made in recent decades. Also, she chose to write about Irène Joliot-Curie rather than her mother, as Marie Curie is the Smurfette (the one woman who gets to be in the club) of science books.

Ms. Swaby suggests reading one entry a week, but reviewers have to step up the pace, so I did it in two days. The biographies are divided by scientific fields such as medicine, physics and mathematics (Florence Nightingale was listed under the last category for her advances in statistical analysis.) The women profiled go from Mary Putnam Jacobi, who did a medical study disproving the then popular theory that a college education made women infertile to Stephanie Kwolek, the inventor of Kevlar.

Many of the stories are bittersweet; the women had to fight to even be allowed to study, were denied paying jobs in their fields, denied credit for their work, denied promotions, titles and awards–and these are just the ones who persisted! Things have improved over time, but one can see where systemic sexism has slowed advancements in science and technology.

It should be noted that some of the women in this book did work or had opinions that are still controversial, Certain readers may object to their inclusion, despite their prominence.

While the book is written for adults, the language is suitable for junior high students on up. It may be an uncomfortable fit for some male readers, but that’s the way it goes; growth is painful sometimes. Elementary school readers may enjoy Girls Research more; see my review of that book. The volume comes with endnotes, a bibliography for further reading, index, and credits for quotes used.

Highly recommended to science fans and those wanting a quick introduction to scientists they may not have known about before.

Disclaimer: I received this volume from Blogging for Books for the purpose of writing this review. No other compensation was involved.

As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, the relaxation of the Comics Code in the early 1970s created a horror anthology boom at DC Comics. At the same time, the once best-selling war comics were going into a slump, at least partially due to the real-life Vietnam War becoming increasingly unpopular. So a hybrid title was created that combined the two genres.

Like many anthology comics, there was initially a framing device of a narrator telling the stories to a soldier and the reader. This switched around a few times, until the series settled on Death as the host of the book. For who knows the stories of war better? The majority of the stories are set in World War Two, both because the writers and artists had served in that conflict or were close to those that were, and because the sides were so clearly drawn. None of the stories in the first twenty-one issues are set in the Vietnam conflict; the most recent war covered is the Korean War in one story, and even then not presented by name.

The art in this volume is stellar. Joe Kubert (who also got to be an editor on this title), Russ Heath, Irv Novick and others are well-served by the black and white reprint. The stories range from good to trite. The two most often used plots are “Corporal Bob saved your life? But he died last week!” and “Arrogant Nazis disregard local superstitions, die horribly.” A couple of standouts are Issue #11’s “October 30”, which is a series of interconnected stories taking place on that date in different years as Von Krauss seeks glory and promotion in more than one war; and “The Warrior and the Witch Doctors!” which has a Roman legionary time traveling, but a unique twist ending changes everything.

The Comics Code, while loosened, was still in effect, so while rape and suicide are implied, they are never directly shown. The gore is also turned way down, unlike many current horror comics. (On the other hand, there’s enough violence to make the “Make War No More” buttons that sometimes end the stories seem out of place.) There are some period ethnic slurs in a couple of the stories. Only one female soldier is seen, and very briefly at that in a post-atomic war story.

The subject matter means that this volume won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the art makes it well worth it for fans of war comics who can take a little weirdness in with it.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. My copy was an advanced reading copy, and changes will be made in the published version, due out November 2014. In particular, the end notes and index were not yet finished.

Hawaii’s reputation as a tropical paradise vacation destination tends to gloss over the fact that it’s inhabited by fallible human beings, who have the same problems there as anywhere else. In particular, during the 1970s, it had a skyrocketing crime rate, with far too many unsolved murders. But this wasn’t the exotic crime you’d see on Hawaii Five-O, but mundane crime like drugs, prostitution and gambling. And not clever locked room mysteries but thuggish mob hits.

This book centers its narrative on the murder of Charles “Chuckers” F. Marsland III, a nightclub bouncer, and its effect on his father Charles F. Marsland, Jr. Mr. Marsland, an attorney, was galvanized into desiring the eradication of organized crime from Hawaii, and eventually became the Chief Prosecutor of Honolulu.

The history of Hawaii is briefly sketched from the first time it was contacted by outsiders, through the loss of its sovereignty, and becoming a state. Thereafter, it concentrates on the matter of organized crime, why it became such a big issue, and who the major players were alleged to be.

While many of them were convicted of crimes, one of the people mentioned most in the book has never even been indicted, much to the frustration of Marsland and others who believed him to be the “godfather” of Hawaiian crime. The fact that he’s never been proved a criminal is repeatedly brought up, often after a direct quote from someone accusing him of crimes.

Mr. Marsland was apparently, like many driven people, a difficult person, often accusing people who did not completely follow his program of being soft on crime, or actively corrupt. While he made great strides at bringing down the crime rate, he eventually lost re-election to a more reasonable-sounding prosecutor.

Hawaiian politics play some role in the book, as does the entertainment world. Many of the criminals had gone to school with people who’d made good, so odd-seeming friendships were not uncommon.

There will be a photo section, bibliography, end notes and an index when the book is fully published. There’s also an essay by the author on his sources, who he could and could not get information from.

The writing is okay but not gripping. I’d recommend this book to true crime readers, and people with an interest in Hawaii beyond the tourist destinations.

Disclaimer: I received this volume free from the Blogging for Books program, on the premise that I would write a review.

This is a biography of Robert Ripley (nee LeRoy Robert Ripley), the cartoonist who created the Believe It or Not! feature. I was fascinated by the paperback reprints of the cartoons back in my boyhood, but knew little of the story behind the creator.

This volume covers Mr. Ripley’s life from barefoot poverty in Santa Rosa, California, to his early career as a sports cartoonist, through his discovery of a love for bizarre factoids and the creation of his famous comic strip to his worldwide fame. He became a world traveler, a millionaire, star of radio and newsreels and knew many beautiful women, all for doing something he enjoyed immensely.

Of course, he also had his faults; Mr. Ripley was a heavy drinker, sexist, racist by our current standards (though progressive for his time), could not keep it in his pants, and had a tendency to fudge facts about his own life the way he didn’t the stories in his cartoons. He also became a more difficult person towards the end of his life as his health failed and his drinking and overwork caught up with him.

The story of Ripley’s life is told in mostly chronological order, with little “Believe It!” factoids about the people and places mentioned. There’s also the story of various supporters of Ripley; most importantly, Norbert Pearlroth, Ripley’s main research person who found many of the factoids that appeared in the comic. (He actually stayed with the strip longer than Ripley himself!)

There is a black and white photo section in the middle, but if you have a smartphone, you can download an app with audio and video clips from Mr. Ripley’s many public appearances. For those of you with multimedia capability, this will make the book a much better value for money. There are extensive end notes and an index as well.

This biography benefits from the very interesting person at its center, and I would recommend it to any Believe It or Not! fans.

Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Featuring the Atomic Knights by too many to list. Trust me, a lot of great names.

Between the late 1940s and somewhere in the 1990s, one of the most pervasive fears of the American public was atomic war. For the first time in known history, humans were truly capable of destroying all civilization, perhaps all life on Earth. One of the ways people dealt with this fear was science fiction. After all, the SF writers had forseen the possibility of annihilation well before such a thing was actually possible–and their stories would tell us the ways things might fall out. At DC Comics, this became a loose theme called “The Great Disaster.”

Unlike other Showcase volumes, this one collects not one series or character’s appearances, but a thematically linked set of stories, dealing with the aftermath of atomic war. As such, it provides a wide array of notable comics writers and artists.

The volume opens with a couple of stories about people traveling from after the Great Disaster to the present, or vice versa. This is followed by a collection of short-shock stories all titled “The Day After Doomsday”, presenting varied scenarios for what life after the Bomb might be like. Perhaps the most effective of these is the “Adam and Gertrude” trilogy.by Len Wein and Jack Sparling, but they all have their charms.

Then we have the feature event, the “Atomic Knights” stories. These were all by John Broome and Murphy Anderson. World War Three began in October 1986, and lasted less than a month, but wiped out much of human civilization, leaving a world without many animals or plants, and only a few pockets of humans struggling for survival. Into this world comes Sergeant Gardner Grayle. When he joined the Army, they discovered he was exactly average both mentally and physically, but during the War he was trapped in a bomb shelter that collapsed from a near-hit. The experience gave him traumatic amnesia, and only months after the disaster does he come to himself.

Grayle happens to be near a town named Durvale that was relatively untouched by the war, which is to say it’s a total wreck. It’s come under the thumb of the Black Baron (so named because of his hair color) who has managed to corner the local food supply. By coincidence, Grayle and a local school teacher, John Herald, discover that the suits of medieval armor in the museum have become resistant to most forms of radiation, including the ray-pistols used by the Black Baron and his men. There are six sets of armor, and soon Grayle and Herald recruit twin ex-soldiers Hollis and Wayne Hobbard, as well as scientist Bryndon (who is feared and despised for being one of those who made the bombs that ruined the world.) The last suit is deemed too small to be usable by any combat-ready man, so the Atomic Knight five set off. John’s sister, Marene Herald, who is small enough to fit in the last armor, takes it upon herself to follow them, and helps out in a tight situation.

The Atomic Knights became the new force for law and order in the post-apocalyptic world, fighting bizarre radiation-spawned monsters, evil dictators, the remnants of Atlantis and the mysterious mole people (who it turned out had actually caused the war.) Bit by bit, they began to make Earth liveable again.

These stories were all about the cool ideas, and were aimed primarily at children, so scientific plausibility and deep characterization were generally skipped. Bryndon being reluctant to discuss his pre-War research and the Hobard brothers being jazz fans was about as much as we learned about them as persons. Speaking of jazz, the early 1960s habit of only depicting white people in comics was on full display on a visit to New Orleans, where names of black performers are dropped, but there are no people of color in town. Marene, of course, is often excluded from dangerous missions and seems to have no particular skill set beyond “being feminine.” She even muses to herself that she’s “just a woman!” Perhaps appropriately, the last official Atomic Knights story from 1963 has her disguising herself as a boy and demonstrating some athletic talent.

Next up are stories of the return of the gods. There’s a one-shot about Atlas by Jack Kirby that doesn’t tie into anything in particular, but shared a resemblance to his Kamandi series, also set after the Great Disaster. The Kamandi series lasted long enough to get its own Showcase volume, so the next set of stories are Hercules Unbound, which ran 1975-77.

We open with Hercules bound to a rock, as he has been for the last millenium or so. Suddenly, the chains holding him snap–could this mean that Ares, who treacherously bound Hercules there, is dead? No time to think about that, as a blind boy and his dog are battling sea monsters nearby. Kevin, the blind boy, explains that he was in Greece when World War Three broke out, and he set out in a sailboat to see if he can get to his father, an ambassador to the Vatican. As it happens, Ares is in Rome, and very much alive, pitting the remnants of armies against each other for his own amusement. While Hercules triumphs against Ares’ champion, the opening chapter ends in tragedy for Kevin.

Hercules and his companions begin wandering the post-apocalyptic earth, encountering mad gods and mutants. There’s one person of color, a loincloth-clad hunter named Cerebus (not the aardvark) who is repeatedly referred to as “Nubian.” Yeah. The new-fangled “Women’s Lib” is mentioned a few times, mostly in association with Jennifer Monroe, a woman who was a model before the war, and mostly serves as a damsel in distress for Hercules.

Over the course of the series, it ties into OMAC, Kamandi and the Atomic Knights, despite these series not precisely being in continuity with each other. The last couple of chapters return to the question of why Hercules was chained to that rock in the first place; it answers some lingering subplots, ignores others, and flatly contradicts some of the earlier characterization. (The series had changed writers more than once in a dozen issues.)

After that are a few back-ups from Kamandi, and one last “The Day After Doomsday” shock story. To close out the volume, we have a Superman story from 1983. By this time, it was looking less and less likely that we would actually have an atomic war in 1986, and even if we did, it wouldn’t have the future-Fifties design aesthetic and cultural behavior seen in the Atomic Knights series. So when Superman suddenly finds himself in the Atomic Knights future, he is quick to point out the scientific implausibiliy of the scenario. Yes, this is hilarious coming from Mr. “The laws of physics are just mild suggestions.” Turns out it’s a virtual reality scenario gone horribly wrong, with the moral being “The task before man-kind isn’t to survive an atomic war! It’s to work in this world we’re living in to make certain such a war can never begin!” The story is also notable for giving Marene Herald a much more important role.

All together, this is a mixed bag with something for many comic book fans, including rare stories. It’s well worth a loan from your library, and if you’re a collector, consider buying it.

Book Review: The Third Chimpanzee for Young People by Jared Diamond, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff

Disclosure: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.

This is a young adult version of Jared Diamond’s The Third Chimpanzee, originally printed in 1992. I have not read that book, so will not be making direct comparisons. I have, however, read Guns, Germs & Steel, which has some overlap with this volume.

Mr. Diamond is a biogeographer and evolutionary biologist. In this book, he discusses the information (current as of 1992) that scientists have about the evolution of humans, who share about 98% of their DNA with chimpanzees. This segues into an examination of human behavior, how it is (and is not) unique among the world’s animals; and winds up with some thoughts about what this might mean for humanity’s future.

The language is clear and should be suitable for strong readers from 10-11 up; there’s also a helpful glossary at the back along with an index. There is no bibliography, presumably because the sources would not be written for young adults. There are several illustrations and sidebars to break up the text.

Parents of sensitive tweens should be aware that the book covers some “heavy” subjects, such as war and genocide. There’s also some discussion of the probable evolution of human sexuality.

A couple of chapters recap the information from Guns, Germs & Steel about why some human societies developed technology more quickly than others. Mr. Diamond frequently uses “narrative causality”; trying to find the most logical sequence of cause and effect without being able to fill in all the links in the chain.

The final chapters deal with the looming specter of environmental destruction and mass extinction of animal species. (But not anthropogenic climate change.) Mr. Diamond is pessimistic about the chances of alien contact. He does believe, however that conservation and population control can mitigate the worst effects of human behavior. After all, while evolutionary biology explains many things about human behavior, it is not the only explanation. We have free will.

This would be a good general introduction to anthropology and biogeography for middle schoolers and non-science majors. Some of the information is out of date, due to it being more than two decades since the original book was written–serious students should review the recent research as well. As Mr. Diamond repeatedly reminds us, his opinions influence his interpretation of the available evidence.

Disclosure: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.

Mitsuo Fuchida was the flight leader in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Jacob DeShazer was a bombardier who participated in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. The Covell family were missionaries. This book weaves together their stories. The author bills this as “a nonfiction novel,” recreating conversations and thoughts as much as possible from the real life records and memories of those involved.

As a top pilot for the Japanese Navy, and later a leading officer, Fuchida participated in many important events of the Pacific Theater of World War Two. But the reason this book is about him is that after the war, he learned of a Christian’s forgiveness and service even though she had every reason to seek vengeance instead. Fuchida was shocked and intrigued by this news, and eventually converted to Christianity.

Jake DeShazer spent most of the war in Japanese prisoner of war camps after the raid on Tokyo. He was severely mistreated and some of his fellow prisoners were killed. But in the darkness of his cell, the Bible came to Jake and he fully embraced religion, Christ’s words of forgiveness and mercy.

The Covells were missionaries in Japan until the government made that unhealthy, then moved to the Philippines to teach, while their daughter Peggy went to college in America. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, they eventually hunted down and killed the older Covells as supposed spies. But Peggy did not let this crush her or her faith, and worked to help Japanese POWs, the news of which eventually reached Fuchida.

The author originally wrote this material as a screenplay, and this shows in the very short chapters, and scene-setting date and place “intertitles.” There are scattered footnotes explaining some foreign words (or in some cases revealing the Japanese phrase translated in the text.) They’re inconsistently used, and i spotted a couple of typos.

There’s no bibliography as such, but the acknowledgements do mention published works of people the author consulted.

As the majority of this story takes place during a war, there is some disturbing subject matter, particularly in Jake’s prison experiences and the chapters on Hiroshima. As a result, I recommend parents review the book before giving it to junior high or younger teens to read. The book also touches on racism between the Japanese and Americans, which was exacerbated by the run-up to the war.

Real life is messier than we like, and some sins are more difficult to make a good story out of than others. Fuchida’s long-term marital infidelity is only mentioned in the chapter in which he ends it, which means that his mistress and their child are shuffled off the stage immediately after we learn they exist, with no explanation of how this happened or what became of them. One suspects that if the movie ever gets made, this is one of the scenes that will be cut.

The writing is okay, but some of the dialogue looks a bit “cleaned up” from how soldiers and sailors normally talk.

I’d recommend this book to World War Two buffs interested in the Japanese side of the conflict, and those interested in reading the life stories of Christian converts.

The last of the Cecil B. DeMille movies in the set I have, it’s very different from the others, being set in the present day, and having a relatively small cast.

The story opens on a passenger ship that has become infested with bubonic plague. The crew is trying to keep this from the passengers, but ace reporter Stewart Corder recognizes the symptoms. He convinces the people he’s with at the time, a British government official’s wife, Mrs. Mardick (Mary Boland) and a chemist with a specialty in rubber, Arnold Ainger (Herbert Marshall), to secretly abandon the ship on a native’s boat. They are spotted by prim Chicago geography teacher Judy Jones (Claudette Colbert) who screams at the sight, and are forced to kidnap her to keep her quiet.

I should note that the version I watched is a trimmed-down one (maybe the only version still in existence) so there may have been some more characters aboard the ship (described as a cultural melting pot) that were cut from this movie.

When they land in Malaysia (actually shot on location in Hawaii), Mrs. Mardick uses her tenuous grasp of Malayan languages and learns that the local village is suffering from a cholera outbreak. Fortunately for the castaways, one of the locals is a man named Montague (Leo Carillo.) He’s quite a character, with a decent grasp of English. The story kind of lampshades the fact that Carillo doesn’t look at all like a Malayan by having Montague believe that he is, in fact, a white man. He even wears a tie, “Best English make!”

Montague agrees to guide the four to the nearest seaport…and promptly gets them all lost. We also start to see more of the characters’ personalities. Corder is a boastful, self-important man who clearly believes he’s the male lead of any situation he finds himself in, and sometimes acts recklessly. Ainger is a bitter, sarcastic fellow. Both of them feel no interest in the repressed, timid Jones, and are a bit intimidated by the heavyset and upbeat Mrs. Mardick.

Eventually, the group is captured by a hostile tribe, and are forced to leave one of them behind as a hostage. This turns out to be Mrs. Mardick, since her layer of fat proves she is the highest-ranking one. Montague fails to ask directions from the tribe, as that would be admitting he’s not superior to them!

Things get worse as another encounter with a local tribe goes disastrously and Montague is slain. On the other hand, Jones has lost her glasses, hairpins and dowdy clothes, revealing that she is in fact Claudette Colbert, and the men have become interested in her. She’s also discovered her inner spitfire.

Corder, in keeping with his male lead personality, thinks Jones will go for him, but she actually turns out to have a thing for Ainger, whose bitterness came from an unhappy marriage. Problem is, he’s still married, despite returning Jones’ feelings.

By the end, they have learned to live in the jungle, and for Ainger and Jones it’s something of a shame that they must return to their repressed normal lives. But that’s not quite the end of the story.

This movie was made just as the Hays Code was coming in, so there’s quite a bit of spicy material. Jones winds up wearing some pretty skimpy outfits, and there’s a scene where she’s apparently naked in a waterfall. (Some shots make it look like Claudette Colbert was actually wearing a very thin slip, it’s deliberately blurry.) Lots of innuendo in the dialogue, and the topics of family planning and divorce are brought up.

The racism is likely to be problematic for modern viewers; other than Montague, the Malayans are depicted as primitive savages, and Montague considers himself superior because he’s “white.”

The roles for the women are interesting; Mrs. Mardick is the most level-headed of the group, and never really loses her dignity, despite looking faintly ridiculous in her formal wear and carrying around a lapdog. She even turns her captivity into an opportunity to bring family planning to the tribe, much to the delight of the women there, and the consternation of the chief.

Jones, on the other hand, goes from a timid mouse of a woman to someone who expresses her feelings, is unafraid to have opinions and dresses as she pleases. We learn that she was emotionally abused by her relatives, who never let her forget that she owed them for taking her in. A defining moment is when she realizes she actually sees better without her glasses–apparently she’d never had her prescription updated after her relatives complained about the expense of getting her spectacles in the first place.

Ainger also grows in the jungle, his sarcasm mellowing into philosophy. When he gets home, his (much older looking) wife belittles him, along with his live-in mother in law. He finds the backbone to divorce them. Corder, on the other hand, shrinks a bit in the jungle. He’s used to being the center of attention, headline grabber and radio personality. Without an appreciative audience and constant praise, he’s lost. At the end, we hear him giving a speech about his adventures, boastfully rearranging events to make himself sound better.

This is not a particularly good movie, especially by DeMille standards. But it has fun bits, and Claudette Colbert in skimpy outfits. It’ll be well worth popping some corn and enjoying with your friends.